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The BaysideBulletin is reporting this morning that things are ready to roll at Cleveland Point for the production and filming begins there this Thursday.

DIRECTORS are set to call ‘action!’ down at Cleveland Point on Thursday, with filming for the next Narnia instalment at the purpose-built tank at MovieWorld wrapping up last week.

Spokesperson for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Ernie Malik, said everything was in place to get under way at Cleveland later this week.

“You’ll have to excuse the pun, but we’re sailing along smooth seas at the moment, and everything is going to plan,” he said.

“If the weather is really bad at any point during filming in Cleveland, we have a covered set at another location that we can film at, but otherwise we’ll just leave it to the director to work with whatever weather conditions come our way.”

You can read the full article at BaysideBulletin’s website here.

For those of you planning to attend, don’t forget that the grandstands have been removed and you’ll need to bring some form of seating. Send us a spy report and tell us about your experience!

It’s the moment everyone has been waiting for — Kylie_Keene updated her Flickr account yesterday with more pictures of the Dawn Treader as the sail was being hung. And it sure isn’t white… Yes! It is purple! It looks like a deep royal purple to me.

“She had only one mast and one large, square sail which was a rich purple.” ~ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Ch. 1

The Dawn Treader Sail from the Stern

The Dawn Treader Sail from the Port

You can check out Kylie_Keene’s full set of pictures on her Flickr account here.

We’ve been working really hard here at NarniaWeb on some special projects which will be launched next weekend. We’ll be releasing a total redesign as well as a new forum and lots of new features. Click here to go to the forum and find out more about the big switch.

AintitCoolNews received three new pictures of the Dawn Treader. Perhaps the most interesting development is that the second mast near the tail has a very familiar looking lamp on the top of it. It also has a good deal more rigging than when we last saw the ship.

From The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Chapter 12: The Dark Island.
“Your Majesty will at least order lights?” said Drinian.
“By all means,” said Caspian. “See to it, Captain.”
So the three lanterns, at the stern, and the prow and the masthead, were all lit, and Drinian ordered two torches amidships.”

You can check out the rest of the pics at AICN’s website here.

Liam Neeson recently did a video interview on Good Morning America in which he talks about his wife Natasha Richardson’s death from an epidural hematoma following a skiing accident on March 19, 2009. You can view the video here. Because of the American outpouring of sympathy for his loss, Neeson recently became an American citizen. You can read more about that story here. Thanks Kotarki for the video link.

Ben Barnes recently did a brief interview with Anton Touloi of Sky News. In this interview, Ben talks about how he feels “lucky” the press has left him alone, and what it’s like working with his Dorian Gray and Easy Virtue co-star Colin Firth. Ben also talks a little about how exciting his cricket team’s victory has been in the Ashes series — more exciting than filming Dawn Treader? You can read the interview here.

NarniaWebber icarus discovered a new picture of the Dawn Treader on “Kylie’s” flickr account.

They have added some mysterious structural pieces to the top of the Dawn Treader’s center mast. We believe that it is the rigging that the bottom half of the sail will hang from. As icarus pointed out, in the movie Master and Commander, the full set of masts and sails on the ship were too heavy for the gimbal to handle, so only the lower third or so was built. The rest was added in with CGI in post-production.

If this is indeed the case with the Dawn Treader, two things can be assumed. One is that her mast will be a whole lot taller in the movie than what we see here. The other is that we may finally see her sail very soon.

Thanks to icarus for the heads-up!

Aslan’s Country is reporting that the role of Ramandu’s Daughter has been cast. An Australian actress named Laura Brent will be playing the Star’s Daughter! You can see a picture of Ms. Brent here, and read the Aslan’s Country story here.

From NarniaWeb’s Character Profile for Ramandu’s Daughter:

“On the island at the beginning of the World’s End, Ramandu’s Daughter greets the Narnians as they stand trying to understand the mysteries of Aslan’s Table and determine whether or not the food is safe to eat. Reepicheep is the first to honor her with a toast after she tells the company the story of the three sleeping Narnian lords. She then introduces them to her father, who in turn explains the quest they must fulfill to awake the sleeping lords. When Caspian bids her farewell, he mentions that he hopes to see her again. They eventually marry after Caspian returns from the World’s End.”

Welcome to Narnia, Ms. Brent!

Comingsoon.net had a chance to talk with Mark Johnson about The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and he had this to say about the movie. “It’s a whole new franchise, I think it’s really benefiting from it. It’s a slightly different look. This one is different from the others, it’s in that [’Seventh Voyage of Sinbad,’ old Harryhausen films] league and they go from island to island having adventures. I’m very excited about it.” You can read the whole story here. Thanks to Briggs for the heads-up!